Snow is removed from the ground or other travel surfaces such as roads, runways, driveways, bridges, parking lots, sidewalks, and the like for purposes of safety and improved user movement or travel. Various known snowplows are used to remove snow from such travel surfaces. Such known snowplows are typically either: (a) a dedicated type snowplow; or (b) a temporary type snowplow including a suitable blade assembly connected to a vehicle used for multiple purposes (such as a garbage truck, a dump truck, a pickup truck).
Snowplows typically push along the travel surfaces and thus regularly experience significant and potentially damaging wear and forces due to the engagement with such travel surfaces. Travel surfaces are often paved or covered with gravel, sand, asphalt, concrete, or other similarly abrasive materials. Travel surfaces also often have bumps, potholes, cracks, rumble strips, steps, manholes, manhole covers, or other discontinuities that significantly alter the contours of the travel surfaces. Frequent engagement with these travel surfaces and discontinuities can cause wear and can damage a snowplow, and particularly the blade of the snowplow.
To address these problems, snowplows typically include blade assemblies that include springs that support the blade, bias the blade toward the travel surface, and provide for or enable upward and/or rearward movement or pivoting of the blade when the blade encounters an uneven travel surface or other discontinuity.
To address these problems, known snowplow blade assemblies also typically include a blade wear member removably attached to the bottom of the snowplow blade. This blade wear member is configured to engage the travel surface and configured to wear out during use. This blade wear member protects the bottom of the blade from direct engagement with the travel surface and thus minimizes wear on and damage to the bottom of the blade from such engagements.
Such known snowplow blade wear members often include a straight or flat somewhat flexible rubber wear strip configured to be attached to the bottom of the blade. As the bottom edge of such known blade wear members engage the ground surface to direct the snow, the rubber blade wear members tend to rapidly wear. Such worn rubber blade wear members can become less efficient or ineffective.
As the bottom edge of such known blade wear members engage the ground surface to direct the snow, the rubber blade wear members also tend to partially break off, fracture, chip, or become otherwise damaged when the blade wear members engage a discontinuity in the travel surface such as a bump, pothole, crack, rumble strip, step, manhole, or manhole cover. Such damaged rubber blade wear members can become less efficient or ineffective.
The quicker the blade wear member wears down or is damaged, the more often the blade wear member needs to be replaced, and the more costly it is to operate the snowplow. Additionally, when a blade wear member wears down or is damaged, the engagement with the travel surface is less even and the performance of the snowplow suffers, which in turn can increase the time and expense necessary to clear the snow from the travel surfaces.
Therefore, a need exists for better snowplow blade wear members that provide improved engaging function between the blade and the travel surface, that wear down at a substantially slower rate than known snowplow blade wear members, and that minimize the tendency of the blade wear member to partially break off, fracture, chip, or become otherwise damaged when the blade wear member engages a discontinuity in the travel surface.
There also exists a continuing need for uses for used tires to prevent used tires from being disposed of in landfills.